The sixth annual computer and video game charity auction opens today and runs through October 14, 2005 on eBay. The auction is sponsored by the ESA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Entertainment Software Association. The auction is held in conjunction with the ESA Foundation\'s \"Nite to Unite for Kids,\" which has so far raised nearly $7 million to benefit a variety of children\'s charities. There are a bunch of cool items available, so if you\'re in the mood for that warm and glowing feeling you get from helping some sad kid, read on for links and more info.

Cyan Worlds, makers of Myst, laid off their entire development crew earlier this month and shut their doors for what the gaming industry assumed was forever. Turns out that\'s not the case. Ryan Miller, co-founder of Cyan Worlds, has confirmed to GamesFirst that the company has rehired some portion of their development team. \"Yes, we have rehired most everyone,\" he said. \"At this point, I can\'t really say more.\" Earlier, MercuryNews.com received similar confirmation from Cyan Worlds. Is it possible the game industry has not really lost one of its original pioneers? Sounds like it.

Surely much to Sony\'s chagrin, those clever hackers have done it again. SonyXTeam has released a Firmware Downgrader for the PSP that will downgrade version 2.0 firmware to 1.50, which enables gamers who have recently bought the system to downgrade their firmware and use homebrew PSP utilities and play homebrew PSP games. This allows new PSP owners to join the rest of us playing Game Boy Advance games while we wait for something decent to come out. It sure beats watching movies on the thing!

For those of you that have been waiting anxiously for the viral marketing site Origenxbox360.com to drop leaves and grow fruit, you can relax now. The site finished its countdown to September 27th today, a countdown that\'s been punctuated over time by minute changes such as a bunny rabbit that came and went, and occasional fruit that appeared on the tree. Speculation has run wild on what was going to happen on September 27th, with people throwing out gems like the announcement of Halo 3 or an updated Halo 2 for the 360. The truth behind the countdown is not nearly so exciting, and apparently led to the opening of a European contest for an invite to some sort of Xbox 360 launch party. That whooshing sound you just heard? That\'s the sound of thousands of gamers sighing in disappointment.

BBC World News has reported that Sony will be letting go of 10,000 employees within the next three years, to be completed by 2008. It\'s always good to remember that of the three major console players, Sony is the only one that\'s attempting to recover from a series of massive fiscal disappointments. While it controls the current generation of home consoles with the PS2, Sony\'s stock has dropped nearly 2/3rds of its value in the last five years, and loses or breaks even on nearly every division other than games and movies. Fans that are worried that Nintendo might be the underdog in the next round of console wars might do better to worry about Sony\'s ability to withstand a long-term war.

According to postings flying around the web, World of Warcraft\'s recent expansion patch opened the world to a new plague: Corrupted Blood. The disease is contracted by fighting a new boss added to the game, and gamers have been passing it on to others in the WoW cities. Most of the NPCs have been affected and some servers are certain death for characters who cannot withstand constant repeated damage of up to 300 hit points. Amazing.

Sony Computer Entertainment has unified their numerous game development studios under the name Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios. The new title helps Sony provide a more unified front in an industry that\'s becoming increasingly global. Of course, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios is extremely long, and abbreviates into SCEWS. Would you want to be called SCEWS?

A member of the Xbox 360 development team has told BBC that Microsoft\'s next generation game system will be difficult to hack. We can only speculate about what that means. It also brings to mind a few other interesting attempts by companies in the past to prevent hacking, such as Nintendo\'s brilliant move to make the GameCube so unpopular that no one would care. We here at GamesFirst have figured out a fool proof hacking system, though, that works pretty much every time.

We\'ve got a roundup of some recent news bits from the industry, including Microsoft\'s confirmation of the new Xbox Live pricing, The Suffering: The Movie, Newscorp\'s $650 million buyout of IGN, and GameSpy on the PSP. Get the known details here.

It looks like Team Xbox figured out the meaning of OrigenXbox360.com. By zooming in on the tree branch near the hole, they revealed a latin phrase, and with the help of a clever reader, they have formed a pretty strong argument that the OrigenXbox360.com site is advertising the September 27 announcement of HALO 3, which has been long-rumored to coincide with the release of the PlayStation 3. Oh, and there\'s another bunny and some more apples on the tree.